Wednesday, December 31, 2014

An Idaho nuclear research scientist who had taken her young relatives to Wal-Mart to spend their holiday gift cards was killed Tuesday when her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded pistol from her purse and shot her.

Deputies who responded found Veronica Rutledge, 29, dead in the Hayden store's electronics department in what Kootenai County sheriff's spokesman Stu Miller described as a "tragic accident." Rutledge, who worked at the Idaho National Laboratory, was from Blackfoot in southeastern Idaho, and her family had come to the area to visit relatives.

Rutledge had a concealed weapons permit. Miller said the young boy was left in a shopping cart, reached into his mother's purse and grabbed a small-caliber handgun, which discharged once.

South Carolina’s dubious distinction as the worst state in the nation for deaths per capita due to criminal domestic violence calls for stricter laws against repeat offenders and stronger measures to protect victims, state Sen. Larry Martin says.

He has filed a bill to be introduced early in the 2015 legislative session that calls for harsher penalties against perpetrators who commit violent acts again and calls for revoking gun ownership rights for 10 years of violators convicted of first degree criminal domestic violence or criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature.

That gun restriction is patterned after a federal law that says those convicted of criminal domestic violence can’t own or purchase a weapon again, Martin said.

Violators who don’t get rid of their guns would be charged with a felony, under Martin’s bill.

The bill also requires a felony charge for violators of two or more offenses and increases the sentence for multiple offenses to up to 10 years.

Under current law, the maximum for second-time offenders is one year and for third or subsequent offenses, up to five years.

It also adds under the heading of high and aggravated cases those in which a deadly weapon is used; impeding the normal breathing or blood circulation of a victim by applying pressure to the throat, nose or mouth; committing the offense in the presence of a minor; committing the offense against a pregnant woman; or committing the offense during a robbery, burglary, kidnapping or theft.

It also gives judges latitude to revoke gun rights of a person charged at the high and aggravated level while they’re out on bond.

Statistics for 2014 aren't in yet, but according to the state Attorney General’s Office, 46 people were murdered by a household member in South Carolina in 2013.

Of those 46 people, 38 were women, constituting 83 percent of the total, and eight were men,

Demographically, 65 percent of the victims were white, 33 percent were African American, and 2 percent were Asian. The average age of the victims was 41 years old, according to the AG.

Guns were used in 78 percent of the cases, according to the report.

Martin said South Carolina had the highest per capita death rate in the nation from domestic violence, with Louisiana coming in second. He said he patterned his bill on one recently passed in Louisiana.

Middletown Police Lt. Scott Reeve said a group of friends were looking at a gun that one of the friends had just gotten when James Terrell, 35, of Middletown, accidentally shot himself in the hand.

“He (Terrell) didn’t think it was loaded,” Reeve said. “He has told us the first time he pulled the trigger he had his hand on the muzzle … and he pulled the trigger and nothing happened. He backed his hand off and pulled again and a bullet went through his hand and into his friend that was sitting next to him.”

The bullet traveled through Terrell’s hand and hit the stomach of Aaron T. Johnson, 27, of Monroe. Both men were taken to Atrium Medical Center where Johnson later died, police said.

Police say the gun was a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun that belonged to Dennis Wunn. Reeve says Wunn is legally allowed to own the gun and alcohol is not believed to have been involved in the fatal accidental shooting.

Police are still investigating the incident and no formal charges have been filed, but Reeve said a misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide could be filed against Terrell.

From being an advocate of the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty to pouring money into Washington state’s victorious I-594 gun control campaign, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has come up with a list of the top 10 ‘anti-gunners’ for 2014.

Not surprisingly, former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg took the top spot this year for dumping millions into creating Everytown for Gun Safety and also helping to finance the I-594 effort in Washington.

The other nine are:

Paul Allen– The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft and principle owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers, he dumped a half-million dollars into the I-594 gun control campaign inWashington State.

Steve Ballmer– Another Microsoft alumni and owner of the L.A. Clippers who added more than$1 millionto the I-594 effort to criminalize perfectly legal activities in theEvergreen State.

Hillary Clinton– The former First Lady and Secretary of State suggested earlier this year that gun owners "terrorize" people by vigorously defending the Second Amendment. She also supported the unratified UN Arms Trade Treaty.

Andrew Cuomo– TheNew York governor who championed that state's Draconian SAFE (for Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement) Act, which is responsible for job losses in addition to penalizing every gun owner in the state.

Bill Gates– This billionaire Microsoft co-founder and his wife contributed more than$1 millionto the I-594 gun control effort, thus helping to pay for one of the most insidious political campaigns inthe United States.

Nick Hanauer– Another elitistSeattle-area billionaire who launched the I-594 gun control campaign and poured more than$1 millioninto the effort. His deplorable effort to exploit the Pilchuck High School tragedy by sarcastically suggesting that, "We need more school shootings" was an offensive new low in anti-gun politics.

Eric Holder– The outgoing U.S. attorney general fought to stall release of thousands of documents related to the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, final losing his battle in federal court this past fall.

Shannon Watts– As founder of the Bloomberg-supported Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Watts has spread disinformation about gun crime and campaigned against laws that bolster personal protection outside the home.

A group of police officers on Dec. 25 pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in the Brooklyn, where New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot and killed on Dec. 20 as they sat in a marked squad car. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)Washington Post

But it is time to recognize that adequate treatment for people with a mental disorder is a distinct problem from gun violence. A much better indicator of whether someone will be violent is whether they come from a violent, poverty stricken environment, and whether they struggle with addiction. Eliminating poverty, domestic violence and childhood exposure to bloodshed would likely make a dent in our problem with gun violence. It may even have made a difference in the life of Ismaaiyl Brinsley.

But these are not problems for the mental health system to solve. And neither is the big problem of availability of guns. Among developed countries, the United States has the highest number of guns per every 100 people (88 as compared to 15 in Australia, six in Britain and 31 in Canada). In a 2012 survey, 43 percent of individuals indicated that there was at least one gun in the household.

Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, is garnering headlines by blaming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for encouraging protests against police killing of black men which, he claims, has created a political atmosphere that led Brinsley to target the two police officers, gunned down while they sat in their squad car outside a Brooklyn housing project.

This is absurd. For one thing, de Blasio has been a strong defender of New York's police department, but he has also criticized police abuses and supported people's right to protest nonviolently. Equally important, Lynch must know that Brinsley was not making a political statement when he shot the two officers. Brinsley's sister told the media that her brother was "emotionally troubled" and suicidal. "He needed help," she said, "He didn't get it." He killed himself after murdering Ramos and Liu.

If Lynch wants to point the finger of blame for his colleagues' deaths, he should focus on the NRA, not de Blasio. For decades, the NRA has fought every effort to get Congress and states to adopt reasonable laws that would make it much less likely that people like Brinsley would be able to obtain a gun. The NRA even defends the right of Americans to carry concealed weapons in bars, churches, schools, universities, and elsewhere. This poses a huge threat to police and civilians alike.

Henry RollinsLA WeeklyOf all the things that transpired last year, I want to take on the Sandy Hook shooting incident. The actual event is too awful for words but some of the conclusions that were drawn were damn dismal and I think we can do much, much better.

The NRA is comprised of an extremely small fraction of gun owners in America. Some of the more ridiculous statements of the organization's colorful CEO, Wayne LaPierre, might well represent only a fraction of its members' points of view. Where the NRA realizes its power is with the politicians they have bought and paid for.

Personally, I don't believe Mr. LaPierre is all that concerned with my right to bear arms as much as he is interested in protecting my access to purchasing guns and bullets. It's a huge industry and anything that is seen as remotely detrimental to sales has the man vigilantly patrolling the perimeter of his bottom line. The more outrageous things he says, the better it is for business. Anything less -- like rationality, for instance -- would at this point be seen as "soft" by the people who feather his nest. It's not that hard to get your head around.

What is hard to digest is that throughout all of the twists and turns this conversation has taken, it seems to be that the "bad guys" have won the day. Instead of the higher, harder, more morally upright discussion of gun control and mental health issues, many have defaulted to the knee-jerk conclusion that we need a lot more guns. Seeing it this way, we must conclude that the minority has won out over the vast majority and we must arm ourselves against our fellow Americans who would seek to do us harm. We must conclude that we are not really all that free and that we failed as a society.

More guns equaling more safety is a slippery slope, and what makes it so is human blood. Great for weapons manufacturers. Not so great for citizens who potentially find themselves in a crossfire zone with little sanctuary.

Wisconsin Gazette opinionWhat country fetishizes, lionizes, valorizes, idolizes, and sacralizes guns as much as does our United States? OK, possibly Mozambique — the only country with an AK47 on its flag, but really, it's long past time to end this obsessive "My Precious" attachment of Americans to instruments of death.The only logical path, given the clearly decided role of the Second Amendment, is to repeal it. American people are tired of mass shootings and police shootings and family feud shootings and sibling shootings and accidental toddler shootings and teen suicide by gun (highly popular).We are exhausted by the proliferation of death, of threats, of bloodshed, and by the NRA/gun industry moral garbage spewing forth every time someone challenges the ubiquity of guns. Repeal the Stupid Second Amendment. Surround it, grab it, bring it in the back room, pull down the shades, and end it. OK, petition for it, get it on the ballot, and get it done by enough of the US populace, by enough people in enough states, to get it consigned to the dustbin of history.

1st dumbest state is South Carolina: Well now, this is also no surprise. This state is known for having some really stupid laws on the books: a person must be 18 to play a pinball machine; horses must not be kept in bath tubs; a permit must be obtained to fire a missile; it is a capital offense to inadvertently kill someone while attempting suicide; and in case you need to know, it is illegal to give or receive oral sex in South Carolina. The point is, if the people were not so dumb, the laws would not have to be written!

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Police responded to a call of shots fired near the Bass Pro Shop. When they arrived on scene, they found an individual with a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Police said the victim brought his gun to trade it with another person, the two met in the Bass Pro parking lot. He reportedly said he thought the gun was unloaded, and went to set the gun down when it discharged and shot him in the stomach at the far end of the parking lot of the store.

He was transported to University Hospital with non-life threatening injuries as a precaution. He is expected to recover.

Among the current jurists who voted six years ago to rewrite the Second Amendment (many of them the same as those who have rewritten the First Amendment to make the mere expenditure of campaign money into “free speech”), there are “originalists” who claim to look back to, and honor, historic meaning. They should be sent back to elementary school reading circles to learn, among other things, the logical connection between what rhetoricians call a prolepsis and its analepsis – as embodied in the two linked clauses of the Second Amendment. The liberties they take with the plain meaning of “the right to keep and bear arms” would be less harmful if they were consistent and confined the supposed original right, as their theory would seem to demand, to flintlocks.

There were no Glock pistols or AK-47s – to say nothing of Bushmaster AR-15s – in 1791.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

A 44-year-old man from Katy, Texas, faces fraud charges for going on a $330,000 shopping spree to gun stores and other shops with his company credit card, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Kenneth A. Hoang has been charged with six counts of wire fraud for using the company American Express Company card to buy more than $23,400 on guns, among other things, according to the indictment filed in a Texas federal court on Dec. 11.

TurboCare, Inc., a subsidiary of the engineering company Siemens AG, employed Hoang and issued Hoang the credit card for business expenses, but failed to retrieve the card after firing him in August 2012 for insubordination and missing work.

Around July 2013, Hoang started using the TurboCare AMEX card and bought 17 guns. In the following month, TurboCare discovered the fraudulent purchases and cut off the card.

Steve Ross, son of Boyd and Charlene Ross, holds a “birdshot” shotgun pellet like the one that struck his mother’s neck. The 12-gauge shotgun accidentally went off in a closet when Ross’ father was preparing to use it to scare away Canada geese from a pond at the family’s home, in York Township. (DAVID KNOX / GAZETTE)

Steve Ross says what happened to his 75-year-old mother could have been a tragedy. Instead, it may be a blessing.

After Charlene Ross was taken to the hospital Sunday from being struck in the neck with a “birdshot” pellet from a shotgun fired accidentally by her 77-year-old husband, Boyd, doctors found she had a previously undiscovered heart problem — an arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat.

“There is no question that this has been a blessing on two fronts,” said Charlene’s son, Steve Ross. “One is that only one pellet nicked her out of the shotgun blast and the second is she was able to be checked out and found that there are underlying problems that we can now address.”

The Last Gun: How Changes in the Gun Industry are Killing Americans and What It Will Take to Stop It, by Tom Diaz, The New Press, 336 pages, $18.95 paperback, Release date: January 1, 2015."Diaz points out that the gun Hassan used, the FN Five-seveN, was a "typical example of military-style weapons that define the market today. There is no mystery in this militarization," he writes. "It is simply a business strategy aimed at survival: Boosting sales and improving the bottom line in a desperate and fading line of commerce. The hard commercial fact is that military-style weapons sell in an increasingly focused civilian gun market. The sporting guns do not."*******************

"The toll of ordinary Americans killed and injured by guns every single day would remain staggering, a bloodletting inconceivable in any other developed country in the world," he writes. "Firearms are the second leading cause of traumatic death related to a consumer product in the United States and are the second most frequent cause of death overall for Americans ages 15 to 24. Since 1960, more than 1.3 million Americans have died in firearm suicides, homicides and from unintentional injuries."

What's more, Diaz points out that 90 percent of US households own a car while fewer than one in three own a gun. Still, firearm deaths have come to exceed motor vehicle fatalities, something that should certainly give us pause.

***********************

The upshot, Diaz writes, is that in today's USA, "guns are most likely to be owned by white men who live in a rural area, those who are middle aged or older, with middle to higher income, who grew up with guns in the home and who live in the southern or Midwestern regions of the country. Moreover, fewer and fewer people are owning more and more guns." To wit: Diaz notes that the average gun owner now has an average of 6.9 guns compared with a still-high 4.1 per person 20 years ago.

The late, great Johnny Cash, talking between songs on one of his albums, admitted he used to stand in front of the TV and try to outdraw actor James Arness during the opening sequence of “Gunsmoke.”

Tulsan Mike Summers said he’s sure many other “Gunsmoke” viewers attempted the same thing.

“I hear that story a lot,” Summers said. “A lot of people blew up their television sets trying to outdraw Matt Dillon.”

Summers, if he was so inclined, could try it with Dillon’s gun.

“Gunsmoke,” a revered Western television series that ran from 1955-75, is turning 60 as soon as the calendar page turns.

Summers has a connection to the show, and he is a collector of “Gunsmoke” memorabilia. He said there are probably 500 items in his collection, including Festus’ spurs and three props that once belonged to series star Arness — a holster, a badge and a Colt .45.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

I wonder if Colion has been reading the comments of our own TS. The video is almost a word-for-word rehashing of his bizarre observations of the new law.

Here's my favorite: "They would all have to go through an arduous process of getting a background check and incur transfer fees for all the guns," said in all seriousness as if that really were an insurmountable obstacle.

Where Colion departs from the message of TS is at the very end of the video. TS never resorts to those stupid impotent threats that some of the more insecure gun-rights nuts like so much.

One thing I agree with wholeheartedly is the watching and waiting idea. I predict that before we have loads of people thrown in the slammer for innocuous technical offenses we'll see a more than usual drop in crime in Washington State.

Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational marijuana sales. Now the state’s voters may consider a ballot measure to allow cannibis smokers to carry concealed firearms.

The ‘‘Colorado Campaign for Equal Gun Rights’’ is working to put a question on the November 2016 ballot to have Colorado ignore guidelines from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about firearms and marijuana.

The measure would change state law to prevent sheriffs from denying concealed carry permits because of marijuana use. It’s a new frontier in the marijuana wars, and one that has divided gun-rights activists.

‘‘It’s just ridiculous,’’ said Edgar Antillon, one of the campaign organizers, who argues that firearms aren’t kept from alcohol drinkers. ‘‘Somebody can get extremely drunk — Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and all week if they want — and they can still get a concealed carry permit.’’

Something
is deeply awry in our nation with the world’s biggest economy that lets its
children be the poorest group and the younger they are the poorer they are
during their years of greatest brain development. The Prince of Peace is mocked
as we let a child be injured or killed by guns every thirty minutes. The
growing boy Jesus who pondered and studied His heavenly Father’s word would
worry about the millions of children around America and the world growing up without
an education – unable to read and compute – sentenced to social and economic
death in a competitive and globalizing economy, and in America, to a mass
incarceration system that will turn back the clock of racial progress unless
dismantled.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

If you realise that Socialism owes more to Jesus Christ and the Gospel than it does to Karl Marx and 19th and 20th Century Economists and Political Theorists, then you will have a vastly different attitude toward this holiday.

The message or theme of charity permeates the certainly of what Christianity is supposed to stand for. We're told this is not a religious country, but on the whole we're told this is a Christian country.
The message of love, the message of Jesus, is one of giving and loving, forgiving; however, is missing from the nature of the US as a Christian Nation.

Here is what is peculiar. Many conservative Christians, mostly Protestant but also a number of Catholics, have come to believe and proudly proclaim that the creator of the universe favors free wheeling, deregulated, union busting, minimal taxes especially for wealthy investors, plutocrat-boosting capitalism as the ideal earthly scheme for his human creations. And many of these Christian capitalists are ardent followers of Ayn Rand, who was one of – and many of whose followers are — the most hard-line anti-Christian atheist/s you can get. Meanwhile many Christians who support the capitalist policies associated with social Darwinistic strenuously denounce Darwin’s evolutionary science because it supposedly leads to, well, social Darwinism!

Meanwhile atheists, secularists and evolutionist are denounced as inventing the egalitarian evils of anti-socially Darwinistic socialism and communism. It’s such a weird stew of incongruities that it sets one’s head spinning. Social researchers like myself ask, how did these internal conflict come about? And why are not liberals and progressives doing the logical thing and taking full advantage of the inconsistencies of right wing libertarianism by loudly exposing the contradictions?

To understand why the pro-capitalist stance of many modern religious conservatives is at odds with Christian doctrine we need to start with the Gospels.

Jesus is no free marketeer. Improving one’s earthly financial circumstances is not nearly as critical as preparing for the end times that will arrive at any minute. He does offer substantial encouragement for the poor, and warns the wealthy that they are in grave danger of blowing their prospects of reaching paradise, as per the metaphor of a rich person entering heaven being as difficult as a camel passing through the eye of the needle (a narrow passageway designed to hinder intruders). This caution makes sense: sociological research is confirming that the more securely prosperous individuals and societies are, the more likely they are to lose the faith. A basic point of core Christian doctrine is that the wealthy have no more access to heaven than anyone else (and in fact may have less), offering hope to the impoverished rejected by cults that court the elites.

This is especially true in Catholicism, where being poor does not constitute evidence of a personal deficiency, and church authorities decry the excesses of unrestrained capital at the expense of social justice. the new Pope is coming into criticism for his opinions advocating a gospel of social justice.

But to understand just how non-capitalistic Christianity is supposed to be we turn to the first chapter after the gospels, Acts, which describes the events of the early church.

Acts 2, verses 44 and 45:

"All the believers were together and had everything in common.
Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had
need."

Acts 4, verse 32:

"All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that
any of his possessions were his own, but they shared everything they
had."

and Acts 4, verses 34 and 35:

"There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those
who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from their sales
and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he
had need."

Now, that’s the socialism of the type attributed to Marx, but the general idea comes directly from the gospels. That is something a certain Clown and university dropout should ponder, but I don't call them the "reality challenged right" without reason.

(Ammoland.com)- Since its inception, Knife Rights has had as a foundational position that knives are arms protected by the Second Amendment. Our logo includes the declaration, “Essential Tool – Essential Rights.”

However, actual court rulings on this issue are always appreciated. Recently, the Connecticut Supreme Court has affirmed that knives are arms protected by the Second Amendment in a case with potential wider implications.

In its decision overturning a prior conviction, the Court held that “the second amendment protects the defendant’s right to possess the dirk knife … in his home and, second, that the statute’s complete ban on transporting those items between residences unduly burdens that right.” The Court further said, “[t]hus, the safe transportation of weapons protected by the second amendment is an essential corollary of the right to possess them in the home for self-defense when such transportation is necessary to effectuate that right.”

The case revolved around the transportation of the defendant’s weapons collection including knives between a former residence in Connecticut to his new residence in Massachusetts. The defendant was originally convicted for having a weapon in a motor vehicle, a violation of Connecticut’s harsh anti-weapons laws.

Thanks to Microdot for the title of the Festival.Track #16 from the live album "I'm Gonna Do What I Wanna Do", recorded at My Father's Place in 1978.

Oh, when I see mommy, I feel like a mummy,Gonna wrap her upEvery time I see herEvery time I see herI wanna grab herPull her up to me til I look right through herBut she moves so fast that I can’t even see herHer interest fades like breath on the mirrorOh, when I see mommy, I feel like a mummy,Gonna wrap her upGonna wrap her upNext time I see herNext time I see herI’m gonna seize herThen I’m gonna freeze herIt’s the only wayThat I might get to see herGonna wrap her up

The parents of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes begged Friday for his life to be spared through a plea bargain — a move that rekindled the long-running, emotional debate about whether the horrific details of the mass killing should be played out at his upcoming trial.

The statement released by Robert and Arlene Holmes emphasized a key legal issue in the tortured history of the case — James Holmes' mental state when he killed 12 people and injured 70 others, and whether he should die if convicted of the crime.

"He is a human being gripped by a severe mental illness," the parents wrote in just their second public comments since the 2012 attack. "We have always loved him, and we do not want him to be executed."

Thirty years ago today the inviolate right to self-defense and the battle over firearm civil liberties were joined in one of the unlikeliest of battle zones -- New York City. Riding a southbound express train in lower Manhattan, a slight of build navy contractor rode that subway car into gun lore history -- his name was Bernard Goetz dubbed -- "the subway gunman" -- defending himself and every other scared New Yorker to ride the underground. (Ironically, at the time Mr. Goetz's naval contract was to protect all of humanity by creating a safeguard against terrorists stealing nuclear weapons.)

In a scene eerily reminiscent of Charles Bronson in the Hollywood hit "Death Wish" four punks threatened and attempted to rob their victim, but enclosed within that graffiti encrusted rail car the "hare turned around and bit the hound" he fired his Smith and Wesson 5 shot 38-caliber revolver into his would-be muggers. The bumper stickers were everywhere in NYC - "Ride with Bernie -- he Goetz 'em"! The crime rate in the dangerous subways plunged dramatically -- so much so the authorities even held back the numbers -- the truth hurt too much.

Bernie Goetz wasn't caught immediately. It was a brief hiatus allowing the incident to grow into an international media sensation. During a White House press conference in early January Sam Donaldson asked President Reagan his position on the "Goetz shooting." The next day a young NRA political director held a news conference at the Park Terrace Hotel on 7th Avenue with Roy Innis, National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and State Senator Chris Mega from Brooklyn declaring, "A government which cannot protect its citizens has no right denying them the means to protect themselves"! The famed journalist Murray Kempton asked if he was urging vigilantism? His retort, "when will Mayor Koch provide the same level of protection to the citizens who ride the subways and pay their taxes that he enjoys surrounded by a phalanx of New York's finest, oh with guns at the ready"? It was a good question then and an even better one today - thirty years later!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

More than 30 states have laws that allow people to use deadly force if they have a reasonable fear for their life or property. But this week, a Montana jury said that type of law has its limits, finding a homeowner who shot a teenager in his garage guilty of deliberate homicide.

In the early hours of April 27, a motion detector alerted homeowner Markus Kaarma someone was in the garage of his home in Missoula, Mont. He went outside and almost immediately fired four shotgun blasts, killing 17-year-old Diren Dede, a German exchange student.

Prosecutors contended 30-year-old Kaarma was the aggressor and had purposefully lured an intruder into his garage to hurt him.

During the two-week trial, witness Tanya Colby testified to what Kaarma had told her just days before the shooting.

"He said 'I'm tired. I've been up for the last three nights with a shotgun wanting to kill some kids,' " Colby said.

Kaarma, his girlfriend and their infant son had been the victim of a burglary in their garage just days before the shooting. But Deputy Missoula County Attorney Karla Painter said Kaarma left his garage door open that night to exact vigilante justice.

The Blaze, which is known for making shit up, claims this ad is very controversial and proceeded to print several comments by gun-rights fanatics. Interestingly, no one mentioned mandatory safe storage of guns, which is what I took to be the main message. To me, it's absurd to the point of lying that the message of the ad is to encourage kids to commit crimes.

While authorities search for details in the shooting deaths of two Brooklyn police officers at the hands of Ismaaiyl Brinsley, just hours after he shot his ex-girlfriend in the stomach, they do know that Brinsley did not initially purchase the murder weapon.

Police say Brinsley used a semiautomatic Taurus handgun, bought in 1996 at a pawn shop in Atlanta by someone else, to kill the two officers before turning the gun on himself.

Authorities don’t yet know how the gun got into Brinsley’s hands. But federal law prohibits gun sales to convicted felons. Brinsley would have been barred from legally purchasing a firearm since he had already served two years in prison for firing a stolen gun in Georgia and had been arrested more than a dozen times, though mostly for petty crimes, according to The New York Times.

But that Brinsley did not directly buy the murder weapon from a shop is not surprising, say criminologists.

Through something known as the “private sale loophole,” he could have purchased the firearm in the private market at a gun show or out of someone’s trunk. Private dealers don’t have to conduct background checks on prospective buyers the way licensed firearms dealers are required to do by federal law. Additionally, guns get stolen, are passed from person to person or bought by so-called “straw purchasers,” those who buy on behalf of felons.

As I reflect on the successful effort to bring former U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi home after 214 days in prison in Mexico, I am pleased that despite the differing border security concerns that loom high in public perception and national policy in both countries, we were able to find the common ground that ultimately resulted in Andrew’s release.